The director of the Canadian NDY chapter, Nic Steenhout, said, “there is no public consensus for euthanasia in Quebec, or in Canada . . . surveys show that people don’t understand that ‘aid in dying’ means giving lethal injections.”

The theme for this year’s conference was: Dignity. Control. Choices. Around the World.

For many, like us at the Center for Bioethics and Culture, who oppose euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide schemes, we know this isn’t about dignity, control, or choices. This is about a pro-death agenda that seeks to corrupt medicine and deny the most vulnerable, at their hour of need, the necessary medical, psychological, and spiritual care — comfort care and compassion– under the guise of a “right to die.”

Anthropologist Margaret Mead, writing about the Hippocratic Oath in 1961, warned, “Society is always attempting to make the physician into a killer — to kill the defective child at birth, to leave the sleeping pills beside the bed of the cancer patient . . . It is the duty of society to protect the physician from such requests.” We resoundingly agree!

President and CEO of NDY, Diane Coleman, warned that it appears California is targeted for another “right to die” battle. She ended one of her speeches affirming human dignity, the depth of need, and the plea for assistance and not euthanasia by saying:

We want assistance to live, not die.
We are not better off dead than disabled.
We don’t need to die to have dignity.
We are strong and proud, and we are
NOT DEAD YET!!